1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling a cartridge of a welding helmet, and more particularly, to a method for controlling a cartridge of a welding helmet having a function to display a welding operation time, which can protect the welder's face from intense light generated during a welding or cutting operation and also, enable automated light transmittance adjustment and operation time setting on a per operation basis, enabling a welding operation to be performed more efficiently.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, arc welding is a technique to bond two metal pieces by locally heating and melting the metal pieces using fusibility of metals. As one of protective equipment, a welder should wear a welding helmet to protect their face from high heat, intense light and harmful gas generated during welding.
A conventional welding helmet having a handle piece, however, is troublesome in use since the welder has to repeatedly put on the welding helmet whenever they perform a welding operation.
As a result of continuous research and development for improving working efficiency of the welder, currently, a welding helmet using a band is commercialized.
The welding helmet, which serves as protective equipment for use in a welding or cutting operation, especially, has an anti-blinding device (hereinafter, referred to as a cartridge) for protecting the welder's eyes from intense light caused by sparks discharged during the welding or cutting operation.
Such a cartridge is attached to the welding helmet, and acts to intercept visible light having a wavelength of 780 nm or more and less than 365 nm while controlling transmission of visible light, thereby allowing the welder to view a welding operation without risking eye damage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,206 discloses a welding helmet in which an Electronic Quick Change (EQC) cartridge including a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) lens, a solar battery and a photo sensor cell is fixedly mounted in a cartridge housing located inside the welding helmet. The LCD lens is positioned directly in front of the welder's eyes, thereby functioning as an actual viewing window. The solar battery absorbs light and thus, functions as an energy input unit. The photo sensor cell detects sparks and other intense light and thus, acts as an input unit of a circuit that automatically adjusts a variable opaque degree of the LCD lens.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,264 discloses a welding helmet, which includes a shutter through which a wearer of the helmet may view a welding operation, an electronic controller coupled to the shutter to control a light transmittance of the shutter, a photo sensor to sense the intensity of light emanating from the welding operation, and an electronic circuit to allow the electronic controller to adjust the light transmittance of the shutter in response to the signal from the photo sensor.
However, the above-described conventional welding helmets have a problem in that the cartridge, which serves to sense the luminance of light emanating from the welding operation and to automatically drive the LCD lens or the shutter to a darker shade according to the luminance of light so as to protect the welder's eyes, has no functions of light transmittance adjustment and operation time setting on a per operation basis, causing difficulty in efficient implementation of the welding operation.